Energytech Nexus Announces 2025 Pilotathon Award Recipients

Houston, Texas – Sept. 22, 2025 – Energytech Nexus held its annual Pilotathon last week as part of Houston Energy and Climate Startup Week, with 24 startups pitching pilot projects with the theme of Energy, Access and Resilience. ETN awarded eight startup recipients across categories this year, including for its COPILOT accelerator cohort.

These awards were determined by judges evaluating pilot projects across several criteria, including technical foundation and prior progress, pilot objectives, and commercial relevance and impact. The judging panel featured experts from Saudi Aramco, ExxonMobil, Shell, NaviScale by Halliburton and many other industry partners. Earlier this summer, pitch participants attended training sessions led by the Pilotathon's sponsors and judges.

The award winners for the Pilotathon's Pilot Pitch and Showcase competition are:

• Metal Light for Best Overall Pilot Pitch

• Espiku and Serenity Power  for the Best Commercial Readiness Award

• Rushnu for the Corporate Partners Choice Award

• Resin8 won People’s Choice Award for Best Startup Showcase

Metal Light, a clean-tech startup advancing metal-air technology, took home the prize for Best Overall Pilot Pitch. Espiku and Serenity Power won the Best Commercial Readiness Award.

Among the winners, Espiku is dedicated to improving freshwater conservation in the extractive industry, and Serenity Power produces solid oxide fuel cells for cleaner power generation. Rushnu won the Corporate Partners Choice Award for its technology, CarbonCatalyze™, that lowers Scope 1 and 3 emissions.  

"The 2025 Pilotathon represented a transformative milestone for our community, bringing together over 75 companies from across North America and beyond—some traveling from across the Atlantic to showcase their innovations. At Energytech Nexus, we recognize that scaling breakthrough energy technologies requires more than just capital—it demands strategic pilot partnerships. The Pilotathon serves as that critical bridge, creating a dynamic platform where established industry leaders and emerging startups collaborate to accelerate the deployment of solutions that will define our energy future," said Nada Ahmed, Founding Partner of Energytech Nexus.

The event also featured ETN's COPILOT accelerator program which kicked off this year, with its inaugural cohort presenting their pitches. The program is a partnership between Browning the Green Space and supported by the Wells Fargo Innovation Incubator at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory.

Award winners for the Pilotathon's COPILOT program:

• V-Glass won Best Overall Pilot Pitch

• EnKoat won Energy Resilience Champion Award

• Janta Power won the Energy Access Award

• PolyQor won Most Impactful Pilot

"We're honored that PolyQor was recognized as the Most Impactful Pilot in the COPILOT category at Energytech Nexus' Pilotathon 2025," said Ali Naqi, founder and CEO of PolyQor. "At PolyQor, we transform five-minute single-use plastics into 30-year and beyond infrastructure, converting waste into sustainable value. The Pilotathon gave us a powerful platform to showcase our vision, connect with the right partners, and see real matchmaking in action. We're grateful to the entire team for the opportunity and support."

For more information about this year's Pilotathon and to learn about pitch and showcase participants, visit https://www.pilotathon.com/.

About Energytech Nexus: The EnergyTech Nexus is a global energytech hub on a mission to solve the energy trilemma of energy security, sustainability and affordability by connecting founders, investors and civic and industrial stakeholders. We are a community of founders, professionals, corporates and investors that help each other form authentic connections, grow on our leadership journey, and gain access to critical resources.